Neo-conservatives for Obama

A top arms control adviser to President Ronald Reagan, Kenneth Adelman, is the latest Republican foreign policy insider to announce his support for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

Adelman is a pioneering “neocon,” one of the neo-conservatives whose suspicions of Soviet intentions drove policy in the Reagan administration.

He was top deputy to United Nations Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick, and then director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency for nearly five years. He later served on the Defense Policy Board.

What has drawn a fellow like this to Obama? In an interview with journalist George Packer, Adelman cited many of the same reasons listed on Sunday by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“When the economic crisis broke, I found John McCain bouncing all over the place,” he said. “In those first few crisis days, he was impetuous, inconsistent and imprudent, ending up just plain weird.
“Having worked with Ronald Reagan for seven years, and been with him in his critical three summits with Gorbachev, I’ve concluded that that’s no way a president can act under pressure.”

Nor is Adelman impressed at McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“That decision showed appalling lack of judgment,” he opned. “Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office — I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign — Country First, and experience counts.”

Adelman voiced hope Obama will be “more open, centrist, sensible — dare I say, Clintonesque” than his liberal record in the Senate suggests.